This weekend I went down to Myrtle Beach to see Stephanie. She is now in her new apartment and since she doesn't have any furniture, we decided we would go shopping. Also, I brought her her big screen TV. She had bought in on black Friday for when she got her apartment. It was to big to fit in her car , so I had to bring it to her.
Her apartment is nice. This is what she sees out her back screened porch.
I also brought her diploma that I had framed.
On Saturday we went to Myrtle beach and walked.
It was pretty crowed but not to bad. It was 9am , so I cant imagine what it was line at 12noon. The waves were huge but I couldn't get a picture that really showed them.
After that we went to breakfast at a place called "Eggs Up". It was packed and I can see why. The food was great.
Then we went furniture shopping. Well we actually started Friday but everything at all the stores were very expensive. So I looked up used furniture on the intranet. I found this place called "Unclaimed Furniture". So we went there on Saturday. They had really good deals. We found this dresser/TV stand that had been reduced because it had a blemish on the corner. Its not really that noticeable.
It was a deal. Only 150.00. I was worried we wouldn't be able to carry it up the stairs, Stephanie lives on the 2nd flood. But we did it without any problems. (we took the draws out).. So now Stephanie has some place to put her clothes, instead of plastic bins. We also put up curtains.
This King Kong was huge. You can see the sign below on the left, for a size comparison.
The next day we went to Huntington Beach. Ive been wanting to go there with the RV, so I wanted to check it out ahead of time. (I wouldn't go during the summer because its to crowed).
They had these big chairs outside the camp store. They are USC and Clemson colors.
The beach was very nice. They have life guards where you first walk onto the beach. But if you go further down the beach, no life guards but no people either. LOL.
Sorry the picture isn't good. I must have pressed something that darkened it. I tried to fix it on my computer. It looks fake now. Ugh!
Its so nice to walk at the beach. When we got down to the RV section, there were lots of dogs on the beach. Kind of hot for dogs to be on the beach , IMO, but nice to know people are all ok with dogs on the beach.
We had a good time and bought some T-shirts at the camp store. It was sad to go home but that's life.
We went to Savannah for a few days during July 4th. It was really hot and humid but I did take my dogs for some short walks.
There were a bunch of trees around this one pond. There were birds everywhere. I could have spent hours there. I didn't because the people riding bicycles kept coming by.
This guy must be use to people because I got really close. He didn't care. At home, they fly away so easily.
Now he did fly away when the dogs lunged and barked at him.
Look at this brown bird. He was huge!!!
That dark blue colored bird seemed to be fighting with an all white bird. At least that's what it looked like. Could have been something else. Look at the bird on the left top. To funny looking.
Then this fox came running right toward us. It was like he thought he knew my dogs. Then he pulled up short. He did slowly make his way our direction. I kept walking away. It was making me nervous. In SC we have had numerous foxes bite kids. It would be kids on a playground at a park or church. The fox would just run out and bit the kids. The fox was always rabid. Ugh. I couldn't find a big stick if I needed it.
He crossed the street toward us. I kept going to the marina. Other people where starting to walk around, so I think he decided to leave.
This was a small alligator. We saw a bigger one when I was driving but by the time I turned around to go back, he was gone.
I was hope to see the squirrel that I said was a bunny-squirrel. It had a small white fluffy tail. I got video but no pictures. If I get around to up loading the video, I post it later.
I didn't slept to well Saturday night, my body kept complaining. But I got up anyway and drive back up to the trial. It was rough. Several times I almost turned around and went home. LOL
But when I got there it was a beautiful sunny day and no humidity. That's unheard of here in the summer. It was so nice!!!
It did make filming hard because the sun outside the covered arena plays havoc with the lens. The new Ipads let you adjust the lens to let more or less light in. Its not perfect but at least you can see what is happening.
The bad thing was I didn't know what I had entered. Usually I take a picture of my entry with my Ipad but for some reason I forgot. So I got there and I wasn't entered in the first two classes. Ugh!! But no worries, they take day of show entries , so I entered Gamblers and we Qed.
Sunday was tunnel-palooza day. Some of the courses you did 7 tunnels, Whoohoo, happy dogs.
We had a pretty good day. We Qed in Gamblers and Snooker.
This was the Novice agility course.
We ran pretty good. I tried so hard to watch my dog and make sure she took the tunnel under the a-frame. So that made me a little behind when she came out the other side. But it worked out ok. I thought we Qed. I didn't realize the judge called a fault until I saw the scores posted. Ugh!!. I looked at the film but I cant see why he called a standard fault. I went to talk to the judge and asked him why but he couldn't really remember. Then he said he thought she left the last weave pole early. But that would have been an E, with a whistle. So anyway, no Q for us. What a bummer.
I was really bummed out about this. Darn it!! We did manage a snooker Q. We were close with the Master series agility. I made a mistake on cueing her to turn when coming off the dogwalk and then I didn't cue her right, so she knew to take the tunnel. Ugh!!!
But everything else was pretty good. Even 9-11. From 9-10, kept her on the inside and called her my side ( a side cue that Im using to keep my dog with me so they don't wing off an take something). It worked great and then I rear crossed on the flat over 10. Whoohoo!!
I wanted to go home after snooker but I had signed up for jumpers. I should have gone home. I was tired and over it all. So of course I messed up and didn't turn into my dog to get the correct tunnel entrance , so we went off course. Ack!!! I don't know if Ill ever get this stuff right. LOL
It was still a really good and fun weekend. Not sure I will be going to nationals because I cant get the Qs I need to get there and wont have to many more chances. Plus the course are really hard. I had to laugh, the novice courses here were harder then the master AKC courses I ran last weekend.
Well the weekend was spent doing another trial. This time UKI. I haven't done any UKI since November's Nationals. Its just hard to find the time and there aren't as many trials as with other venues. I only entered Java, Miley is still on rest.
I love UKI. So many fun courses to run. To bad my friends all do AKC. If they just tried these other venues, they would see how fun they are. I did get one person, who has only done AKC, to come but she just entered standard and jumpers. You can do day of show entries and I tried to get her to do other classes but she wouldn't.
Anyway it was really hot and humid. Luckily it was mostly cloudy which I think helped keep things from becoming miserable. I did bring my Arctic cooling misting fan. It got lots of attention, people wanted demonstrations and asking where I got it. It does help when its so hot outside.
This is an older picture. I now have one of those big orange water coolers that I take with me , filled with water. I sit it on top of it and it works great.
We had multiple storms come through during the day. It would rain and then clear up again.
This was during one of the light rain storms.
This trial was very small but I felt lucky that he was able to rent this arena and its under cover.
We entered Gamblers, Snakes and Ladders. Beginner agility, Beginner jumpers and Master series jumpers.
Boy these were tough courses. I felt bad that the courses were so hard because my friend is still pretty new to trialing. But mostly I wanted her to come for the training in the ring . Her dog is having trouble with getting on the contact obstacles. He is great in class and then refuses at trials.
Java is still in beginners but here is the Championship course. Boy it was tough. It didn't look like to many dogs ran clean.
Here was the first class, Gamblers.
UKI gamblers has two gamble options. The easier one is worth 10 points, the harder one was worth 15.
Java did good but missed the easier gamble (the white circles). She missed the #3 jump when she came out of the tunnel.
I ran Snakes and Ladders for the first time. It was fun and we Qed.
Kind of a crazy game. You have to run all the contact and weave in the direction away from the start line and you have to do all the tunnel in the direction of coming toward the start line. If you dog accidently does them in the wrong direction, you are whistled off. You also have to do 6 jumps. All of this has to be done in 55 seconds, I think. You plan your own course. You can do the obstacles again in the correct direction but you don't get anymore points and you are wasting time. Java did 9, 11 and then #1dogwalk but missed the contact. If you miss the contact , you don't get the points. So I put her through the #8 tunnel and did the dogwalk again. This time she hit the contact and got the points. I did the tunnel again to bring us to the weaves. Doing the tunnel again didn't get us anymore points but I did it in the correct direction and I was just using it to get to the weaves, so we were ok. We got through the rest of the course and Qed. Whoohoo!!
I messed up the standard agility run, ugh.
Right before this jumpers run we had a bad thunderstorm. It was raining when we were walking the course. Then a bad down pour. We had to leave the walk thur and go get the dogs and move all our stuff because the rain was driving in. Most of my stuff was soaked.
After the walk thur, I got Java out of her crate. She was in a plastic crate but still was pretty wet from the rain storm. And she was freaked out. It was thundering and the rain on the metal roof was loud. She refused to move several times while I was warming her up. I told my friend, she isn't going to run, she is to freaked out. Even when we went to walk to the ring, she sat down and refused to move. I had to pull on the leash. We went into the ring and I was still thinking "she isn't going to run, she is to freaked". But as soon as I took the leash off, I could tell she was ready. Forget what ever was happening outside the ring, she was fired up. I needed a bigger lead out but was scared she would break, so I just released her. Whoohoo, we Qed!!
Last up was Master series jumpers. Man we were so close to a Q. She cut behind me coming out of the weaves and took the wrong side of jump #6. I need a tattoo on my arm that says , "Watch your Dog". LOL
I blinded #2 to #3. That was the only way I could think that I could beat her out of that tunnel to get the back side of the #4 jump. Yes it worked. This run felt better than it looks on video.
I drove home that night and got home around 8pm. I was beat.
I worked running dogwalks at 7am. And I was already sweating. Then I took the dogs to the park. Man, it was humid. How am I going to survive a dog trial outside tomorrow. I feel like I should drive the RV up there just to have air conditioning but that's a lot of gas money for the day. I guess Im just going to tough it out.
It was so hot I had put the dogs in the river. I think Java was glad . She just kept standing there, it was like she was saying "awwww".
Guiness is the really happy one!. Always telling everyone he is here!
This is my favorite picture. Turned out very cool looking with the mist coming off the water.
This water is freezing cold. It makes my feet hurt , its so cold. I could barely stand to walk to the middle to take this picture. I saw this lady earlier this week, standing in a bikini up to her upper thighs fishing in the deep part of the river. I don't know how she stood it.
